In line with the objectives of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, the Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB) in the Cordillera has requested for its personnel to be trained on Community Support Program (CSP) under the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Cordillera RMFB Commander, Lt/Col. Mario Mayames, Jr., said their plan is to combine information operations together with combat operations of police personnel, with the aim to strengthen the government’s capability to counter recruitment and indoctrination activities of insurgents.
He said he submitted a proposal to the Police Regional Office-Cordillera for the Armed Forces of the Philippines to train select police personnel from the region on CSP.
Hoping that a budget would be allotted for the undertaking, Mayames said they are eyeing provincial mobile forces and Special Action Forces personnel to undergo the training.
Mayames assured that having a select personnel focused on information operations through the CSP will not compromise the tasks of the police in terms of law enforcement, combat operations, and ensuring public safety.
The CSP, a program of the AFP Development Support and Security Plan, is a multi-sectoral and community-based peace and development effort aimed to establish and protect a conflict-affected community to identify issues that the community itself identified.
Due to limited resources, the retooled CSP was formulated to strengthen the CSP initiatives of the military and making the effort local government unit-driven,
This supports the NTF-ELCAC, which Pres. Duterte created to institutionalize the whole-of-nation approach under Executive Order 70.
As impressed upon in a memorandum circular of the Department of the Interior and Local Government on October, EO 70 stated the need to establish the whole-of-nation approach to address the causes of local armed conflict by prioritizing of basic government services, social development packages, and construction of needed infrastructures with the goal of ushering inclusive development in the pursuit of the country’s peace agenda. – Hanna C. Lacsamana
